Michelle Elman - Ask Me Anything
Michelle aka @scarrednotscared and @bodyconfidencememes is a body confidence coach and author.
What does body positivity mean to you?
Body positivity is all about making sure all body types are represented, inclusivity and diversity.
What is the difference between body positivity and body confidence?
Body positivity is a political movement, addressing the marginalisation of certain body types. Body confidence is about you, your individual relationship with your own body.
What is the biggest misconception about body positivity?
The biggest misconception is that you need to be healthy in order to belong in it. No matter what your health is, you’re deserving of love and respect.
What was the biggest win for the body positivity movement this year?
One of the biggest milestones for body positivity this year was Tess Holiday’s Cosmo front cover.
For a size 26 woman to be on a front cover is pretty monumental.
Michelle Elman
Name: Michelle Elman
About: Michelle is a body confidence coach and an award-winning body positive activist. She created her campaign #ScarredNotScared in 2015 after she noticed there wasn’t enough representation for scars.
How would you like to see mainstream beauty standards shift in 2019?
The biggest misconception is that you need to be healthy in order to belong in it. No matter what your health is, you’re deserving of love and respect.Michelle Elman
In 2019, what I would love to see is that we abolish all beauty ideals. It’s not about fat being more beautiful than thin, it’s about not having any standard.
How can we start to change the negative perception around the word ‘fat’?
I use “fat’ as a neutral and empowering word. ‘Fat’ is just the descriptor, the
same as the word ‘tall’. You wouldn’t tell someone they weren’t tall if they were, so it’s not really the word that’s the problem.
What are your thoughts on fat shaming vs thin shaming?
All body shame is bad. But what we also have to remember is that fat shaming is a systemic problem. Thin shaming is largely the other person’s insecurity.
We all have good days and bad day – how do you suggest we deal with the bad days?
I sometimes just let myself have that bad day. We all have bad days, I call it a duvet day, put my favourite Netflix show on, then I’m good to go for the next day.
How do you maintain body positivity and self-love when your body is changing out of your control?
You have to realise that it’s not about your body, it’s about the change. It’s adapting to the change, rather than the change itself.
What’s a good first step to becoming body positive when you’re very overweight?
You are not your body. The more you refer to your body as a medical diagnosis, the less you’re actually using ‘your body’, so stop thinking about your body and spend more time in it.
Do you still have struggles when it comes to body positivity?
Any time I think there’s a problem with my body, I know there’s something bigger going on in my life. My body’s just the quick fix. It’s my automatic pattern to jump to something being with my body, it’s not actually about that.
